My Birthday Gift

As my birthday gift, Nathan got me the paint for our bedroom.  Wow, when did I get so old as to think paint is a fun gift to get?!?  Anyhow, here’s how it turned out!

BEFORE…

AFTER…

The Answers to ‘Getting to Know Tawni’

First, to my sister-in-laws.  You two are the best, and don’t think otherwise.  However, my congratulations have to go out to Melinda, for she had the most correct answers.

1.  What is my favorite color?  BLACK

2.  What is my favorite restaurant?  CHEESECAKE FACTORY

3.  What is my favorite flower?  ROSE (FIRE & ICE TO BE EXACT)

4.  What is my lucky number?  3

5.  What is my favorite book?  THE HIDING PLACE

6.  What is my lucky number?  STILL 3 (OOPS!)

7.  What was the make, model and year of my first car?  1983 DATSUN (NISSAN) SENTRA

8.  What is my favorite car (though I will never be able to afford one)?  PORCSHE 911 GT2

9.  How many bones have I broken?  NONE

10.  How many surgeries have I had (include giving birth, though not necessarily a surgery, it counts)?  6 - I HAD A GANGLION CYST REMOVED FROM MY RIGHT FOOT WHEN I WAS THREE, I HAD A TRACHEOTOMY WHEN I WAS THREE, I DELIVERED DYLAN AND EMMA, AVERY WAS A C-SECTION AND I HAD A HYSTERECTOMY

11.  What is my favorite NHL team?  KINGS

12.  What is my favorite soda?  DIET DR. PEPPER

13.  What is my highest bowling score?  279

14.  How many countries have I been to?  8 (IF YOU SAID 7 BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T INCLUDING THE U.S., THEN YOU CAN CONSIDER YOURSELF CORRECT)

Ward Dance

Saturday night our ward had a dance for all ages.  There was a great turnout and it was a lot of fun.  In addition to dancing, there were two cake walks (one with colors for the little people and one with numbers for the older ones), food (of course) and some live entertainment.

Our live entertainment was this…

Best Birthday Ever

I had such a wonderful birthday.  I had lots of visitors throughout the day, phone calls, emails, texts, Facebook messages, etc.  I felt very loved!!  That night Nathan took me to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Yummm!!!  When we got home I opened the door to tons of friends yelling “surprise!”  It was so nice.  My sweet husband had planned a wonderful surprise birthday party for me.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!

My birthday celebrations began back in January, actually.  I went with my sister-in-law to a LONG lunch to celebrate both of our birthdays.  We went to Mimi’s Café, they have tasty salads.  Then, in early February I went to lunch with my parents at Noodles & Company.  It was fun and I always enjoy trying new places.

Thanks to everyone for making this the best birthday ever!

Ode to Karen White

Karen White is the author of all four of the last books I read.  I would highly recommend all of them to anyone.  She has a great ability to bring characters to life and make you feel like you are right in the story with them.  What I really enjoy is that I feel like I’ve been to all of the cities she has her books set in.

On Folly Beach.  This was a fun book to read.  It has a lot of interesting characters and is set in Folly Beach, which is a city I would love to go visit.  It continues to change from the past to the present to tell the entire story, which seems to be a common characteristic of Ms. White’s books.

The Girl on Legare Street.  If you don’t like books that involve sixth-sense stuff (seeing and talking to ghosts), then I definitely would not recommend this book.  I enjoyed it, but that stuff doesn’t bother me.  After finishing the book though, I learned it was the sequel to another of White’s books, which I read next.  Though I didn’t feel confused by having not read the other book first, I would still recommend reading them in order.

The House on Tradd Street.  Again, if you don’t like the paranormal, I wouldn’t recommend this.  This is the first book in the series that preceded ‘The Girl on Legare Street.’  Only because I had read Legare Street first, this book dragged due to my knowledge of some of the characters and events.  Other than that, I now want to go to Charleston because of it.  Great book!

Falling Home.  Another great book by Karen White.  I’m excited she has more that I get to read.  I don’t think this followed her other books as a traditional mystery with a love story involved, more the reverse, a traditional love story with a mystery involved.  None of her other books have made me cry, but this one did.  It pulled on a lot of heart strings and if you like cute love stories, this is a great one!

I Can’t Believe I’m 35!!

In honor of my birthday, I have decided to post a ‘Getting to Know Tawni’ quiz.  If you would like to post your answers in the comments section, I’d love to read them.

1.  What is my favorite color?

2.  What is my favorite restaurant?

3.  What is my favorite flower?

4.  What is my lucky number?

5.  What is my favorite book?

6.  What is my lucky number?

7.  What was the make, model and year of my first car?

8.  What is my favorite car (though I will never be able to afford one)?

9.  How many bones have I broken?

10.  How many surgeries have I had (include giving birth, though not necessarily a surgery, it counts)?

11.  What is my favorite NHL team?

12.  What is my favorite soda?

13.  What is my highest bowling score?

14.  How many countries have I been to?

Check back for the answers!

I’ve Missed My Camera

My camera has been gone almost a month getting the auto focus mechanism fixed, and I have missed it so much!  I am so happy I have my camera back and excited to begin taking pictures again.  Here are some things that were missed…

We finally got something up on the wall in our kitchen.  I got a killer deal on these mirrors, $12.50 each!

Dylan now spends time preparing our supply of Nerf guns whenever his friends are coming over.  He makes sure each one is loaded and arranged for everyone to choose which gun they want to use.

And, my family is still just as cute and wonderful as ever!

4 more makes 10

These Is My Words.  This book began REALLY slow.  The first 100 to 150 pages dragged on and on, and on, and on…, but picked up after that.  I ended up liking the book and the end was predictable, but brought things full circle, but I don’t know that I would recommend it.  If I did, I’d tell the person to start half way through the book!

The Lost Hours.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  From the very beginning I thought it was an intriguing story that kept me captivated through the end.  The characters were strong and I felt like I was right there in Savannah with them.  I look forward to reading more of White’s books.

A Thousand Splendid Suns.  So I had heard this was more difficult to read than Hosseini’s first book.  I don’t agree with that.  It still discusses difficult topics, but they are real and not as heart-wrenching as those found in ‘The Kite Runner.’  I would recommend this book to anyone and think they would appreciate the strength of the characters, the joy and sorrow they experience and that you are privileged to experience with them.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning.  This was one of the Reader’s Choice books at the library.  I thought it was a good story, took a long time to tell, and used a lot of unnecessary bad language.  It has some good life lessons in it and a “surprise” ending, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend it.